Volunteer a passionate lagoon fan

Conservancy gives Moore top award

If you've ever taken a tour of San Elijo Lagoon at the southern end of Encinitas, your guide was probably trained by San Diego resident Barbara Moore.

Moore is one of the most influential local naturalists you've never heard of. She created the docent program, one of many projects she handled during more than two decades volunteering with the organization that eventually became the San Elijo Lagoon Conservancy. She retired this year from the board of directors.

The nonprofit conservation group recognized Moore, 70, recently with a Lifetime Achievement Award during its annual gala at Clear Spring Farm in Rancho Santa Fe.

Moore worked for the Chula Vista Nature Center beginning in 1987 and retired in 2006 as its programs manager. She also has been involved in the San Diego Audubon Society.

At San Elijo Lagoon, Moore helped design a new Nature Center that opened in February. She also co-wrote a guide to exploring areas of natural beauty in San Diego County. The book, “Walking San Diego” (Mountaineers Books, 1989), was co-written by Lonnie Hewitt.

“I hope I have helped folks understand the importance of our open spaces and also the human history in these areas,” Moore said.

Moore, a San Joaquin Valley native, graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in child development. She moved to San Diego County in 1973 with her family and began volunteering at the former Scripps Aquarium. She later taught natural history classes for San Dieguito Adult School.

She says her most memorable battle to save the lagoon came more than a generation ago.

“The county had many suggestions about what to do with the lagoon. One of them was a proposal in the late 1970s, early 1980s to put a restaurant on stilts in the middle of the west basin, which would have destroyed the integrity of the lagoon. Every county planner came up with some idea of what to put there, but that was the one that shocked me the most. It was defeated by the folks at public hearings.”

Moore, who has two adult children, lives in Del Mar Heights with three cats, a desert tortoise and a box turtle.